MySpace Launches MyAds: 'HyperTargeting' for Small Biz
MyAds product appears timed to coincide with launch of MySpace Music.
News Corp.-owned MySpace has unveiled its long-planned self-serve media buying system for small advertisers. Called MyAds and available at advertise.myspace.com, the beta platform allows bands, local businesses and pretty much anyone else to bid between $25 and $10,000 for performance-based display ads on the site.
MyAds comes with basic ad templates for advertisers that may lack their own creative assets. It also includes a basic analytics package that reports on impressions, click-throughs, and a campaign’s running cost.
The offering was first heralded by MySpace last November as a way for marketers to slice and dice its vast audience according to their detailed interests.
But its germination goes back further than that, to Fox Interactive Media’s 2007 acquisition of Strategic Data Corporation. FIM claimed the purchase would give it the technology chops it needed to meaningfully target ads to users based on the myriad information contained in profiles, bulletins, and blog posts. MySpace has also said it will eventually roll out more sophisticated targeting approaches, such as life stages targeting.
In addition to interest-based targeting, marketers can deliver ads based on demographics, location and other criteria. Prior to its launch, MySpace tested the system with 80-plus advertisers. In a June update, MySpace told ClickZ News it plans to review all ads created using the platform before exposing them to the site’s audience.
The launch of MyAds comes about three months behind schedule, perhaps to coincide with the big roll-out of MySpace Music. News Corp. is heavily invested in the ad-supported music offering — a joint venture with major labels — and MyAds is clearly meant as much for bands and small labels as for other small marketers. For instance, a dedicated interface for music marketing uses copy like “find your fans” instead of “find your customers.”
MyAds joins a host of other self-serve ad platforms, including those from Facebook, Google, AdBrite, Platform-A and others.
MySpace could not immediately be reached for comment.
